On 23 April 2025 at , a 6.2

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

struck the

Sea of Marmara The Sea of Marmara, also known as the Sea of Marmora or the Marmara Sea, is a small inland sea entirely within the borders of Turkey. It links the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea via the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, separating Turkey's E ...

, southeast of

Marmara Ereğlisi Marmara Ereğlisi (; ), also spelled Marmaraereğlisi, is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Tekirdağ Province, Turkey. Its area is 175 km2, and its population is 29,549 (2022). Facts Ereğli is 30 km east of the to ...

Tekirdağ Province Tekirdağ Province (, ) is a province and metropolitan municipality of Turkey. Its area is 6,190 km2, and its population is 1,142,451 (2022). It is located in the East Thrace region of the country, also known as European Turkey, one of only t ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, near

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

. One person died of a heart attack, 359 others were injured and moderate damage was recorded across the Marmara Region.

Tectonic setting

Istanbul lies close to the western end of the

North Anatolian Fault Zone The North Anatolian Fault (NAF; ) is an active right-lateral strike-slip fault in northern Anatolia, and is the transform boundary between the Eurasian plate and the Anatolian sub-plate. The fault extends westward from a junction with the Ea ...

(NAFZ), which is a right-lateral

strike-slip In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

fault zone, forming the northern boundary of the

Anatolian plate The Anatolian plate is a continental tectonic plate lying under Asiatic part of Turkey, known as Anatolia. Most of the country of Turkey is located on the Anatolian plate. The plate is separated from the Eurasian plate and the Arabian plate ...

. The Anatolian plate is being forced westwards relative to the Eurasian plate by the northward movement of the Arabian plate. It extends from the

Gulf of Saros Gulf of Saros or Saros Bay () is a gulf north of the Dardanelles, Turkey. Ancient Greeks called it the Gulf of Melas (). The bay is long and wide. Far from industrialized areas and thanks to underwater currents, it is a popular summer recre ...

in the west to Karlıova in the east. The western end of the fault zone consists of two main strands, the northern of which runs through the Sea of Marmara. It began to form around 13–11 million years ago in the eastern part of

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

, propagating gradually westwards. The fault eventually reached the Sea of Marmara around 200,000 years ago. Before the discrete fault strands developed at the western end, the area was affected by diffuse shear-related movement in a rather broad zone, dating back to the late

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

. The last powerful earthquakes to strike the NAFZ occurred in 1999, them being the

İzmit İzmit () is a municipality and the capital Districts of Turkey, district of Kocaeli Province, Turkey. Its area is 480 km2, and its population is 376,056 (2022). The capital of Kocaeli Province, it is located at the Gulf of İzmit in the Sea ...

and Düzce events which struck on August 17 and November 12, respectively. In November 2022, a M_w 6.1 event struck west of

Düzce Düzce () is a city in northwestern Turkey, the capital city of Düzce Province, the eighty-first Provinces of Turkey, province in the country. It is the seat of Düzce District.seismologist Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes (or generally, quakes) and the generation and propagation of elastic ...

s agree that there is a 64% chance for a 7.0 or higher earthquake near

before 2030, likely to be caused by the breaking of the NAFZ beneath the

Marmara Sea The Sea of Marmara, also known as the Sea of Marmora or the Marmara Sea, is a small inland sea entirely within the borders of Turkey. It links the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea via the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, separating Turkey's E ...

Earthquake

The

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on Mar ...

(USGS) reported a magnitude of 6.2. Its offshore

epicenter The epicenter (), epicentre, or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates. Determination The primary purpose of a ...

was located in the

, southeast of

, or southwest of

. Shaking lasted 13 seconds. It was the most powerful earthquake to hit Turkey since the

2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes On 6 February 2023, at 04:17 Time in Turkey, TRT (01:17 Coordinated Universal Time, UTC), a 7.8 earthquake struck southern and central Turkey and northern and western Ba'athist Syria, Syria. The epicenter was west–northwest ...

, the biggest one to strike the

North Anatolian Fault The North Anatolian Fault (NAF; ) is an active right-lateral strike-slip fault in northern Anatolia, and is the transform boundary between the Eurasian plate and the Anatolian sub-plate. The fault extends westward from a junction with the Ea ...

since the 1999 Düzce earthquake, and the most powerful in the

region since the

1999 İzmit earthquake An earthquake of moment magnitude 7.6 struck Kocaeli Province, Turkey on 17 August 1999. According to official figures, at least 18,373 people died and 48,901 people were injured during the earthquake, and 5,840 people were missing. At least 15 ...

. The earthquake had a maximum Modified Mercalli intensity of VIII (''Severe''). According to the USGS'

PAGER A pager, also known as a beeper or bleeper, is a Wireless communication, wireless telecommunications device that receives and displays Alphanumericals, alphanumeric or voice messages. One-way pagers can only receive messages, while response p ...

service, an estimated 56,000 people were exposed to this level of shaking, mostly in parts of Çorlu. An additional 796,000 were exposed to MMI VII (''Very Strong'') shaking, mostly in

Esenyurt Esenyurt (), formerly known as Ksenos, is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Istanbul Province, Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 43 km2, and its population is 983,571 (2022). Located in the European side of Istanbul, Es ...

and Büyükçekmece municipalities in Istanbul; MMI VI (''Strong'') was felt by about 3.4 million people, much of them in western areas of Istanbul Province, while Istanbul's city center recorded MMI V (''Moderate'') shaking. MMI IV (''Light'') was also recorded in

Bursa Bursa () is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the Marmara Region, Bursa is one of the industrial centers of the country. Most of ...

, as well as Evros in Greece and the cities of

Burgas Burgas (, ), sometimes transliterated as Bourgas, is the second largest city on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast in the region of Northern Thrace and the List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, fourth-largest city in Bulgaria after Sofia, Plovdiv, an ...

and Yambol in Bulgaria. In addition, people reported shaking in areas as far away as

Gaziantep Gaziantep, historically Aintab and still informally called Antep, is a major city in south-central Turkey. It is the capital of the Gaziantep Province, in the westernmost part of Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region and partially in the Medi ...

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

in Romania and

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

in Bulgaria. By 25 April, 260 aftershocks were recorded, including two 5.0 events at 13:02 and 15:12, respectively. The earthquake also triggered a small

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, ...

, with maximum heights of at

Erdek Erdek is a municipality and district of Balıkesir Province, Turkey. Its area is 307 km2, and its population is 31,902 (2022). Located on the Kapıdağ Peninsula, on the north coast of the Gulf of Erdek at the south of the Sea of Marmara, ...

, at Esenköy and at

Silivri Silivri, formerly Selymbria (Greek language, Greek: Σηλυμβρία), is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Istanbul Province, Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its population is 217,163 (2022). It lies along the Sea of Marmara, outsi ...

Impact

An Uzbek national died of a heart attack and at least 359 people were injured due to widespread panic, including 236 in

, 40 in Sakarya, 28 in

Tekirdağ Tekirdağ () is a city in northwestern Turkey. It is located on the north coast of the Sea of Marmara, in the region of East Thrace. The city forms the urban part of the Süleymanpaşa district, with a population of 186,421 in 2022. Tekirdağ ...

, 23 in Kocaeli, 21 in

Yalova Yalova is a market-gardening town located in northwestern Turkey on the eastern coast of the Sea of Marmara. It is the seat of Yalova Province and Yalova District.Bursa Bursa () is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the Marmara Region, Bursa is one of the industrial centers of the country. Most of ...

. At least 4,295 buildings were damaged and some mobile network providers were disrupted in parts of Istanbul, with 80% of the damage occurring on the European side of the city; 539 buildings suffered damage in

. In

Fatih Fatih () is a municipality and district of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 15 km2, and its population is 368,227 (2022). It is home to almost all of the provincial authorities (including the mayor's office, police headquarters, metro ...

, an abandoned three-storey building collapsed. A four-storey building also suffered damage in

, the roof of a building fell at Büyükçekmece and a three-storey building partially collapsed in

Bakırköy Bakırköy is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district in the European part of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 29 km2, and its population is 226,685 (2022). Bakırköy lies between the State road D.100 (Turkey), D.100 highway (l ...

. In addition, there were 61 damaged buildings in Tekirdağ, 28 each in Kocaeli and Bursa, and three in Yalova.

Response

At least 3,597 personnel were deployed to the Marmara region, including 1,443 in Istanbul, along with 250 vehicles and 18 rescue dogs. Education Minister Yusuf Tekin announced the closure of schools from 24 to 25 April in

and

. Parks in Fatih and several mosques, including the Şehzade Mosque, were converted to overnight shelters. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said that 100,000 people slept in designated shelters overnight due to the earthquake.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Istanbul earthquake, 2025 2025 earthquakes

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

2025 disasters in Turkey

Earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...